Hourly vs. Salary: Which is Better?

I had a conversation with a friend, we’ll call him Joel, who had two job offers. One was a low-stress 9-to-5 gig, but paid $10,000 less than the other offer, which would require longer hours and greater responsibility. He didn’t like a lot of things about the higher paying position, but he accepted the offer because it was more in line with the salary at his last job.

In the months that followed, he was regularly putting in 12-hour days at the office and working Sundays. My guess is that it was at least 60 hours per week, and that’s being conservative. His gut instinct was right — he wasn’t enjoying the new job.

Salary vs. hourly

I couldn’t help but to wonder if the extra money was worth it because I was in a similar position not long ago.
When I was an employee, I was on the cusp of going from hourly to salary, and quite frankly, I’m glad I was able to avoid the uncomfortable conversation of declining a promotion. In my situation, a jump in levels would essentially mean I would be doing the same job (with the possibility of more responsibility) for the same pay. Vacation and sick days were the same for hourly or salaried employees. When I asked what the difference was between the two pay structures, other than the fact that I wouldn’t get paid for overtime on salary, I was told that salaried employees can take a couple of hours for a doctor’s appointment and not have to use their sick time.

As a young, healthy woman without kids, I had amassed more sick days than vacation time. That wasn’t much of an incentive. Then I looked around me at some of the other salaried employees who stayed late or worked weekends, and I wanted no part of it. I wanted to have dinner with my husband at night and spend our weekends going to markets, cooking and watching Netflix.

At another job, I was told that being on salary meant that “if we close the office early, you’ll still get paid.” But we closed the office maybe two or three afternoons out of the year, and there were many, many events that required 8+ hour days. Once I put in a 22-hour day for a particularly big event.

In these particular situations, I just didn’t see the benefit of switching to salary. Was I crazy, or was everyone else?!

Exempt and non-exempt

First, let’s look at what exactly it means to be hourly or salaried. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which governs most jobs, employees are either “exempt” or “nonexempt.” Nonexempt employees are typically paid by the hour and are entitled to overtime pay it they work more than 40 hours per week. Exempt employees, on the other hand, do not get overtime pay. For example, a sales consultant is usually exempt, but a customer service rep who works in a call center will most likely be nonexempt.

Every field, company, and job is different, but generally, the following are the benefits and drawbacks of each pay structure.

Benefits of hourly work

The benefits to being paid by the hour include the following:

Guaranteed a certain dollar amount for every hour you work.

Positions usually have a predetermined number of hours you’ll work.

If you’re asked to work more than 40 hours, you get paid overtime, which is time-and-a-half for each hour after the first 40 hours. For example, if your hourly wage is $12, you would be paid $18 for every hour past 40 hours in a week.

Some employers double your hourly rate if you’re asked to work holidays.

The drawbacks? If your place of business closes early or decides to cut back on hours, that means a smaller paycheck. The likelihood of that happening depends on the industry and the company. A 9-to-5 office job is likely to have a set schedule, whereas a job working in retail might fluctuate more.

Benefits of salary pay

The benefits to being paid a set salary include the following:

Guaranteed a certain dollar amount per paycheck.

Some companies offer salaried employees additional perks, such as vacation days or a more flexible schedule. For example, if you finish your work early, you might be able to take the afternoon off.

Often salaried positions come with a higher status and/or a jump on the pay scale.

Salaried employees might be happier, according to a study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Researchers found that income didn’t affect happiness levels as much for salaried employees as for those paid hourly, who experienced a stronger relationship between income and happiness.

The downside is that if a salaried position demands more than 40 hours per week and working on holidays, you won’t get paid extra for your time.

In my case, there were no extra perks and no bump in pay. My hours were just as set as they were for salaried coworkers, maybe more so since my boss was reluctant to have me work overtime and have to pay time-and-a-half. I think in Joel’s case, it wasn’t such a good deal, either. If he was making $50,000 and working 60 hours per week, he made about $16 per hour. If he had accepted the other job offer at $40,000 and 40 hours per week, he would have make $19.24 per hour. He was working at a lower hourly wage, and he wasn’t even enjoying his job.

But in many cases, it can be a great thing, especially if you make more money, get extra benefits, and your company doesn’t expect 80-hour work weeks with no time off to compensate. If you’re given the choice between the two, whether at your company or when negotiating job offers, look at the whole package. Find out the average number of hours the job requires, calculate your hourly wage, and think about what your time is worth. (Even better: Compute your real hourly wage, since it’ll reflect hidden job costs, such as wardrobe and commuting.) If you’re young and single, maybe you want to focus on your career and climb the corporate ladder. If you’re a father of two small kids, making it home for dinner every night might be your top priority. Then look at the perks and decide if they’re worthwhile to you. For example, a free pass for doctor appointments didn’t matter to me in the least, but I would’ve jumped at the chance for a flexible schedule.

In short, don’t assume that salary pay is necessarily better. Every job and every employee’s personal situation is different, so crunch the numbers and weigh the benefits for yourself.

Editor’s note: This article was first published in 2011 and updated by Katie Ryan O’Connor in October 2016.

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Also we are made to use PTO for everything when salaried-so if you leave an hour early it costs PTO-arrive 20mins late it again costs PTO time-really no different than had we all been hourly employees. In a good company they would not do this to salaried staff-you would only use PTO for a full day.

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LALA

So we are all being forced to clock in salaried or not-being forced to clock out for a lunch break even if you cant really take one just so the company won’t have to pay overtime. They make it so if you arrive 5 minutes early for work the system won’t allow you clock in-so many times you arrive to work and get busy and then realize you haven’t yet clocked in and now it appears you have arrived late which in fact you were early. The company keeps sending out emails saying if you don’t like it then to vote the right way in Nov. and it will all go away-WTF is going here??????

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Joe

I totally disagree with this article. In my opinion it’s always better to take a salaried position. The benefit to working salary is that no one will tell you how many hours you can work. If your young and single as the article states the only way to get ahead is not be lazy and work your butt off. I don’t care what anyone says but hourly people are always first on the chopping block and have the least amount of attachment to a company. Ya it is not always glamorous working extra hours and not getting paid but if you truly want to get ahead in the long run you have to work your butt off and learn and learn more. If your an hourly employee your time is far too limited to truly get any place of significance.

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Anita

I would say I agree to a certain degree. Only because I have seen how it is from both sides. A few years ago I had a manager who was able to leave and “take care of personal thing” during work time and still got paid for it. I on the other hand had doctor appointments every other week for my twins who had to do therapy and there was no flexibility to let me make up time on a Saturday not every week but to at least get my whole pay. So I ended up finding me a better job with flexibility that was hourly as well. I found it is not fair to help certain employees out and not others please note it was my manager who had the capability to come on Saturday and would never call me when she would come in to help me get those hours I was missing out. Anyways I would say good riddens that I never have to work with anyone like that anytime too soon.

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Ali @ Anything You Want

When I went from hourly to salaried I ended up making less money because I was working so much overtime. Ultimately it ended up being worth it because as I rose to high-level positions, I was given raises. I also likely couldn’t have been given promotions and stayed an hourly employee. It was frustrating at the time, but I took a long-term view and it worked out in the end.

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BDP

There are actually two different concepts intermingled in many of the comments. The first is a matter of the law:
NON-EXEMPT vs EXEMPT
This is a US federal concept. If an employee works more than 40 hours in a particular time period, the employer is legally obligated to compensate them 1.5 times their hourly pay for time worked over that 40 hours. The law itself applies to most employment situations. The exemption occurs when the employee’s total compensation is above that of some minimum level, and the employee’s actual duties are those called out in the law. This law applies no matter the rate of pay (salaried, hourly, etc) or the job title, career path.

The second is how any particular company or industry chooses to compensate its workers and honor their time as fellow citizens or humans. Any company can CHOOSE to compensate any employee for work/time over 40 hours, they just aren’t legally obligated to do so. They aren’t prohibited from doing so.

additional comment:
Anyone who tells you that your salary is calculated to include some “overtime” compensation is full of baloney.

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jj

I am salaried (paid the same regardless of time worked). I only work late hours for two reasons: To keep up, or get ahead. Both allow greater control of the expected and unexpected.

When I’m ahead, I’m more in control and make less mistakes when the unexpected occurs. When I’m behind, the opposite occurs. Thus in the long run I manage my time more efficiently and am able to improve my circumstances without being forced out the door by a punch card with a fresh pile of “unfinished” or “unexpected” steaming on my desk. Or worse, punch out and then hide in my cubicle past hours, keep emails in my drafts and send them the next morning to keep time stamps within working hours, etc…

If your workload is so much that you cannot achieve a reasonable level of completion, then being slaveried seems an unreasonable expectation. If your workload is doable, and you can manage the ups and downs sufficiently, then being salaried can be a blessing rather than a curse if managed well. Capitalize on quality of life when your ahead and maintain a normal life when you’re current.

If not, I’d renegotiate the workload or reconsider the deal.

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David

I worked 60 hours a week at my last (salary) job and hated it. I should be getting paid 20 hours of overtime every week on top of what I made.

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Lesismore

Check with your state, but here in Ca, even if you are an exempt employee you have rights when it comes to the amount of hours an employer can work you. The law says they can only work you 2x the minimum wage in hours, meaning that if you make $52,000 a year as a salaried person, then you would have a cap of 55 hours. 52,000/52weeks=1000 dollars a week. 1000/55hrs= 18.18. The min wage in Ca is 9.00 x2 would =18.00 dollars an hour. So if they make you work more hours and are feeling cheated, then it’s time to ask for a raise.

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Chris

Can a employer switch you weekly between salary vs hourly depending on the number of hours you work?

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James

As mentioned, this really depends on what you do and how you like it.

That said, I have personal experience with both. When I was in the military, I was ordered to recruiting duty (not a volunteer, mind you, I didn’t want to be a salesman). There I was made to work 80+ work weeks and constantly threatening to produce more people so my bosses could have better evaluations for promotion. I made about $54000 a year (all bonuses/allowances included) with benefits, but I was miserable and it was a miracle my wife didn’t divorce me because of how little I was at home. Plus I only made $10/$11 an hour when you calculated it.

Now I work as a contractor overseas, and I’m paid $34.00 an hour. My annual pay is higher, and unlike the military, if I have to be at work it’s a good enough reason for them to cough up some extra dough – not as punishment for perceived lack of performance during the day. I find myself MUCH happier being paid for my time than being slave driven with salary pay…

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Bob

When a Independent Sub-Contractor and his or her company Contracts their equipment on a Percentage base on piece work completed with all Responsibilities and Liabilities, how is the Percentage calculated? Is the Percentage base calculated by the Contractual document from the Customer on the work completed by the Independent Sub-Contractor(s).

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John Swansey

I HATE UNIONS WHY TAKE AWAY PART OF MY PAY> I PREFER SLARIED JOBS AND DID VERY WELL . I COULD TAKE OFF TIME WITH OUT BEING DOCKED AND THE OVER TIME WAS NOT VERY MUCH I WORKED IN THE SHOPS AND DID VERY LITTLE TRAVEL. WHEN I DID I ENJOYED IT
IF I WAS ON HOURLEY I WOULD BE DOCKED OF PAY IF I TOOK OFF FOR ANY THING , SO OVER THE YEARS I CAME OUT ON TOP AND VERY HAPPY ABOUT IT

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salary worker

That is so untrue I have been at my job for over 10 years every hour I work over 8 hrs is time and a half. Salary pay is much better on state observed holidays I get double time and a half plus sick, vacation,and personal time.

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JEB

My employee (factory) treats hourly like slaves.

If we get sick they don’t accept a doctor’s statement and we get written up. After missing a week on FMLA we get so-called disability pay AFTER USING UP OUR VACATION but it is limited to $300 a week minus taxes and insurance. A salary person gets sick pay and FULL PAY for the first 12 weeks and doesn’t have to use vacation.

Hourly get 1x their salary for life insurance; the salary get 3x their pay.

Hourly people have NO PENSION aside from a 401K match; Salary get a BIGGER match, a Pension, AND Profit Sharing.

WE NEED A FEDERAL LABOR LAW REQUIRING ALL EMPLOYEES BE TREATED EQUALLY! REWARD EDUCATION WITH BIGGER SALARIES, NOT BETTER TREATMENT!

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Rebecca

I am hourly and my husband who works for the same company is salary. Our differences. I have a doctor appt..I have to use my sick time with no pay or use up what little vacation time I have. Him..his boss says to him go to the doctor and get it taken care of. No used sick time no used vacation time. My stepdad had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. FMLA does not cover stepparents. I had to be there to pick up my mom who does not walk or drive. Time was counted against me. My hubby…just leaves and no time counted against him. Take care of business and we will see you tomorrow. My vacation time has been used up with Dr visits, etc…he has ALL his vacation time left to use on every single friday for the rest of the year. I’m scrounging to keep my job of 8 years while he relaxes knowing he has all his time plus can still be told to just go and come back. While I bite my nails waiting to be fired. Does he work more than me? No, I have mandatory OT while he works 40 and goes home. My parents are no different than salaries parents and my sickness and dr visits are not inferior to salary sicknesses and dr visits. Double standard and corporate perks is the only difference.

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Brenda

I’m a salaried employee and had vacation and sick time benefits. I had to take medical leave due to surgery. All vacation and sick time were used. After that I did not get paid a full check as a salary employee. If I had a doctor appointment during the week and took off say 3 hours, I did not get a full paycheck. I was told because I had no time left I wouldn’t be paid for it. How does this happen when you are salary. If I was unfairly paid, who do I report it to?

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Calvin

I’m surprised by the amount of people who are salaried and not compensated at all for the overtime they work… My dad is salaried, but he is paid for the overtime he puts in. My new job I will be starting in a few days is salaried but overtime eligible, meaning that should I need to work overtime, I will be compensated for it. Perhaps I just lucked out.

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Laurie

Salary = more complex responsibility, vaguer and more changeful expectations, higher performance expectations, more stress leaking over into one’s personal life

Hourly = Clearly defined expectations, a task completion mentality, praise and attention for high performance and patience for poor performance.

Conclusion: If you can find an hourly wage job that meets your needs for standard of living, even with added overtime, go for it. I don’t think it’s a question of “career” over “job.” You can make a career out of delivering good customer service for an hourly wage, and being in management is, most days, nothing but a dreary J-O-B.

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Flyrodder

Hourly or salary? It all boils down to the individual company culture so you can’t really make generalizations about the benefits of one over the other. If you asked me five years ago I would have told you that being salaried was the absolute greatest. I worked for a company where putting in over 40 hours in a week was rare and I think in the nearly 10 years I worked there I could count on one hand the number of weeks I worked over 45. Like others have stated, taking a few hours off for a doctors appointment or to meet with a contractor was no big deal. Sometimes my boss would even let me leave a few hours early on Fridays during the nice weather if my work was all caught up or I had been putting in some overtime recently.

At my current company, salary equals slavery. Yes I still have the flexibility to leave during the day to take care of personal business, but I either have to take personal time or make the time up using “flex” time. I put flex in quotes because our flex time is really not flexible and by the rules you are supposed to get prior approval from your supervisor in order to use flex time and it must be made up during the same week. Also my management is very old school and they frown on working from home, even to make up time and you need prior approval from your supervisor of course in order to work from home. However, you can work all the overtime you want from home, in fact they expect it. I was told soon after starting this job that I was expected to work a MINIMUM of 45 hours per week, and during busy periods we have mandated 50 hour minimum work weeks for a period that can last two or three months. Management has no respect of time off of salaried employees. I was nearly written up for refusing to work on a weekend because I had made plans to go away months in advance and my boss told me that week that I was expected to be in the office on Saturday. I was told that as a salaried employee I don’t have time off. I am expected to always be available and work any days and hours I am asked. But it gets worse, if a salaried employee takes time off in excess of two consecutive days, they are expected to keep in touch with the office in case anything comes up. My management thinks nothing of approving vacation days and then denying them at the last minute or calling an employee at 7PM (mind you 2 hours after the work day “officially” ended)on a Friday to tell them they are expected to be at work on Saturday morning.

So in summary, at a company where employees are treated like human beings, salary is way better than hourly hands down, but at companies that use employees for free overtime, salary equals long hours week after week.

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Gail

I worked as a secretary-receptionist and received a salary and a pretty low one. I was to work 8-5 with an hour off for lunch. I got there at 8 a.m. and often found the door locked. At times the rest of the staff wouldn’t arrive until 9 a.m. and I’d be standing out in the cold. Usually I’d sit through the day with nothing to do and then about 3 or 4 p.m. the people I supposed would decided they better get to work. I was staying until 5:30 or 6 p.m. I took the bus and had to walk through a rather bad part of town. I finally walked out of this job. I did not like being taken advantage. I did not feel that my wage was appropriate for working more than 40 hours a week. I also had another job that paid quite low and would often be required to stay on my own time. If it is a well-paying position I would consider that my salary would include overtime. On the otherhand a low pay job where I’m required to work overtime without pay is taking advantage of me. I for one have never been able to find a career. I’ve pretty much had to take jobs, even with as a college graduate and two years of college beyond that. I just haven’t had that much choice in the jobs that I accept. I take whatever I’m offered.

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Donna

i am a nurse, love it, and i am paid hourly @ 48 dollars per hour work 50+ hrs per week and overtime at time and a half and i consider my employment A CAREER nothing laughable or to sneeze at about that

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ATR

What a ridiculous article — Ms. Dykman has obviously never taken a course in labor economics. When you are a salaried employee, you are not “uncompensated” for hours worked over 40. Payment for overtime is built into your salary rate. When employees are converted from salary to hourly, the new hourly rate is NEVER the salary divided by 40. It is less because of the overtime factored into the salary. This conversion calculation was even approved by the courts in California — a traditionally employee-friendly state.

Total compensation is based on the market value of the work. Whether you are paid hourly or salaried, as long as your employer is following the law (i.e. not shaving time from your timesheets) you are being compensated for all hours worked and your total compensation for the job will be the same regardless of whether you are paid hourly or salaried.

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Laurie

Your remark is based on the assumption that all salaried positions include lots of hours worked over 40. In my salaried positions I occasionally worked a few extra hours here and there, but nowhere near enough to make it a factor in deciding my pay. Pay of salaried staff is supposed to be decided on the overall value the employee’s skills contribute to the company. Whether that involves extra hours worked is a subjective factor. If I see that salaried staff at a company works lots of unpaid hours, I will not want to be salaried staff at that company, pure and simple.

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hellnosalary

i agree with the article 100% because salary is the worse thing. never ever take salary working in retail because you will be make less money. being pay by the hour is the best thing in the world.

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Chris

I was in the same dilemma, and had to make a choice. I am in the restaurant field, and always looked for a salary job, but realized that hourly is better for me.

Company A offered me a salary of $35,000 starting salary with insurance kicking in after a year of work, with no personal time off, and one week vacation per year. I am working 12 hours days 5 days a week.

Company B offered me $17.00 p/h with 40 hours a week, while getting over time with time and a half after 40 hours. The benefits include paying for my school (90%), personal time off, Vacation, fully vesting me in my 401k instantly, and family time schedule.

I am working for company A at the moment, but gave them my notice because company B is giving me a better schedule, benefits, and more time with my family instead which is important to me.

I guess you have to weigh your pro’s and con’s

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20 and Engaged

I think salary is better, and usually comes with more respect (in some companies) and more perks. Plus, you know how much money to expect on your check, which feels amazing.

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Stacy

My job has all of the downfalls of hourly and all of the disadvantages of salary (but I love the work I do).
I have to clock a timesheet even though we are technically salary. If I work fewer than 80 hours in a pay period (2 weeks) I have to use PTO to make up the difference (or take a smaller paycheck). If I work more than 80 hours I don’t get paid overtime since we are salary. I do get health ins. and contribute to a 403b (employer match is currently on hold). On the upside I have a great deal of flexibility in my day to day schedule and if I need to take a partial day for a doctor’s appointment I can make up the time later in the week.

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fetu

Right after 9/11, hourly workers at our company got cut back to only 4 days of work a week =32 hours. All the salary leaders had to work an extra day instead. I was happy to be an hourly worker having the extra day off.

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Jonathan

Commission – The best way, to get your pay

I have worked for the last 14 years a commissioned employee and I would say, it’s the best from of compensation for me.

Think about it….

When you go to eat out, and the service is great, you reward the waiter/waitress with a tip. In a perfect world, the harder that person works, the more they get paid.

I believe that allowing the consumer to dictate compensation based on the value added, is one of the best ways to compensate an employee.

The commissioned employee must choose between labor and leisure (the classic economic challenge).

For those who think in these terms, it beats the heck out of salary or hourly wage.

I have worked hourly wage jobs and to tell the truth, I wouldn’t really care either way. I am less concerned with the wages of the salary than I am with how much work I would have to do.

Being on Salary is definitely a double edged sword. The same thing that makes it good is what makes it bad. In many cases, no overtime pay for long hours. At the same time if you have finished the job, you do not have to stay until it is time to punch the clock in order to get your full wages.

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Lea

Maybe these articles could be tagged when they are so US centric?
Because nothing in this article applied to working here! 🙁
#australia

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Alex

I mainly tend to look at the type of responsibility that a job brings. According to my experience, jobs that require overhours also bring along extra responsibilities or demanding projects, which is good for the resume.

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Pam

I guess I come at this from a different perspective, I am Canadian and an engineer. Engineers are strictly expemt from labour laws that require payment of overtime, and we are also not allowed to unionize.

So, I am a salary employee and couldn’t really be anything else. That being said, I am in a high demand specialty and I get paid for the hours I work (just not time and a half). I do sometimes work long weeks but I took 7 weeks of holidays last year with all the extra time I banked.

In my field salary is a reality and I am now in the bonus/shareholder level in my company. If I do work “unpaid” overtime (project is overbudget – or proposal has to get out the door)I am actually turning into profit for the firm which means more dividends for me.

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Hourly Worker

I’ve been working an hourly job for the last 6 years, and I’m glad. Most of the salaried workers at my company get screwed. I’m at the top of the pay scale for my job, and my nominal hourly rate is more than that of most of the salaried workers in my department. My schedule automatically gives me at least 2 hours of overtime per week, and I normally work about 500 hours of overtime per year. Since I get time and a half for my overtime, the more hours I work, the higher my average hourly pay. The opposite is true for salaried workers, who are expected to put in a lot of unpaid overtime.

Salaried workers do get bigger bonuses, percentage-wise, but the bonuses are based on the previous year’s total earnings. Where I work, the main reason an hourly worker would want to get a salaried job is to work a regular dayshift schedule instead of rotating on nights and weekends like most hourly workers have to do. To me, it’s not worth taking a pay cut for that, but some people (mainly those with kids) feel differently. I was actually offered a “promotion” to a salaried job recently, and I think I would have to be crazy to take it and lose my overtime pay.

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Eddie

I think it a good rule to assume any salaried position involves going beyond the 40-hour week.

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Grace

Before I read this article, I had no idea that there were hourly full time employees.

As an electrical engineer who’s been job hunting and talking w/friends who are also job hunting, contracting positions are becoming more common. At my current employer, you’re either salaried or contractor(hourly temp). The only exceptions are the people still in school who are paid by the hour but not contractors. Only the salaried people get a 401k, health benefits, paid vacation, etc. The contractors get a much higher salary but I personally prefer the benefits and stability. We’ve downsized a few times over the last few years, and contractors are the first to go. Since the company’s still tight on money, the contractors are not allowed to work more than 40 hour weeks. I’ve seen a surprising amount of job postings that are for contractor positions, but thankfully they’re still in the minority. A friend who was probing for a job was discouraged that all the callbacks he got were for contractor positions that paid the same or even less than his current salary w/o the benefits. Then there are a few people at the company who have reached the point where they became a contractor because they knew the company couldn’t survive long w/o them. They’re the last to be let go, but first to come back.

On a separate note, it seems that some contractors are more motivated to do a good job because they hope that the company will offer them a salaried position. I hope it does not become the norm. Which industries have full time hourly?

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Jaime B

I work ft hourly, with benefits, and I’m in customer service. I work in a call center, running conference calls. I gross a little over 40k base + over-time.

Teleconferencing (in the operations ends of it, not reservations) is a bit different in that you either have a call or you don’t. It can be difficult to find the sweet spot in staffing. For operator assisted calls, you have to have enough staffing so hold times aren’t too long, but not so much that when we’re slow you aren’t paying a bunch of people to essentially sit around. While there are calls all the time, our busiest seasons are still during IR quarterly releases.

Anyway, operators and assistant team leads are hourly and everyone above that is salary. Other departments may be structured differently, but I don’t think so. The only department where I think they use contractors may be the tech department. We also have benefits for part-time employees who work between 21-39 hours – they’re more expensive but all the same as everyone else. Any p/t employees under 20 hours do not get benefits and we have those as well.

lol, long story short – telecommunications. A friend of mine is a techie for a phone company and he went from a company employee to a contractor, but I think he gets benefits still. I haven’t asked but he didn’t mention losing them … now I’m going to have to ask next time we talk. It was not something he chose, it was either get laid off or go contractor.

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jim

You’ll probably find that every industry has some people who do work full time hourly. There are no hard fast rules, just what people commonly do. THere are lots of jobs that are full time and hourly. Salary pay is common for some fields more than others. Most management, professionals (doctor, engineer, lawyer), sales and computer jobs are salary but theres always exceptions.

Theres nothing keeping an employer from paying anyone hourly. THe rules are that you can’t pay some people salary. It doesn’t go the other way.

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Janice

yes i agree, the problem isn’t how one gets paid but the fact that companies want to squeeze their labor pool so that one is required to work extra hours (on salary) so it doesn’t cost them any money, when in many cases, they simply need to hire more people. one of the reasons unemployment is so high is because companies have gotten used to the profits they’re getting from cutting payroll. when smug people think they’re on a “higher” track career wise because they’re on salary and are willing to put in those ridiculous hours because they have no life and have really bought into the farce that THIS is what makes someone good at what they do (i.e., “successful”), wait til they’re get their first pink slip. it will happen, it’s now a fact of working life. and, until health care is not tied to one’s job, it further tightens the screws for families, particularly, to be at the mercy of the employer. but there are lot of people who could stand up to the abuse but don’t. so, hourly or salaried (i’ve been both, each has its pros and cons), management or not (been both), just try to be happy in what you do, and don’t let yourself be exploited if you can. sorry for the rant, but it’s a pet peeve of mine.

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Felice

Wow, what a common debate! I always compare hourly to salary in terms of hourly. I also look at the amount of real working hours and of course opportunities to get promoted. Some companies will offer salaries to get more hours from you. I would say use whatever criteria you must use to make a decision, but salary is not always better than hourly.

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Amanda

DH is happier on salary. However, we have a unique job situation. He wants to work 3 days a week. 24 hours a week. He continued to get pressure to work more days, and since he was getting paid he’d go, but he’d be stressed out and overextended for our volunteer work.

Recently they asked that he go to salary and he did it. That is taking pressure off him mentally from coming in extra days. He just says no now. Sometimes he rearranges and works 5 days in a row and one day the next week and they are OK with that.

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JaM

I work in IT and have done both the hourly billing as a consultant as well as work FT as an employee. There are advantages to both and boiled down to demand-supply and how the economy was doing. As a consultant I charged market rates which were significantly higher than any salaried position would pay, however if the economy tanked I was out of the project. Now I work in a corporate FT salaried position that affords stability, flex time, training, remote work options and less travel. Considering time to spend with family and career growth the salaried position suits me at this stage of life.

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rvdaj

is there a certain position that has to be held in order to get salary as opposed to hourly? Does the person have to have a manager position or something like that.
would appreciate some info on this.
thank you

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Gerard

I agree with the post, but it also seems you are trying to fix the wrong problem.
The real problem is the slave driver mentality of many bosses and the BS about working overtime, important projects and all that crap.
We should not have to work overtime, we should not have to come in on sundays aor work extra hours because someelse does not want to have a life. With exceptions, very few jobs have life or death situations.
And being European I find the entire 10 days of holiday per year, including sick days ridiculous. In Europe we get 5 weeks of more, not including sick days. And with Europe I am not referring to the Greeks, but to strong healthy economies like Germany, Sweden, Norway, Danmark and the Netherlands.

That seems to me is the real problem that America needs to fix.

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El Nerdo

YES

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Emily

I find that Europeans generally assume that Americans are driven to work more hours for less pay and less benefits and time off, and generally need to get a life, but this is a faulty assumption.

Many jobs in the US have generous time off policies. My firm has 10 holidays (where the office is closed and everyone is off), plus I get 5 weeks of vacation to use as I wish, and sick time to use at my discretion. Theoretically the sick time is not limited but if I were to be out more than a week at a time, I would likely need to go to short term disability which is another discussion. I rarely use sick days anyway so that is not much of a concern.

The idea that Americans don’t know how to stop and smell the roses, and allow themselves to be taken advantage of by big bad employers, is getting old. I work hard and I get plenty of time off to compensate, in addition to earning a good salary. I work to live; I do not live to work.

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Gerard

I am happy to read that not all Americans have it as bad as I described. But does your situation apply to most Americans, or are you the exception to the rule?

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J.R.C.

I suspect that you will find that the more menial jobs tend to have worse benefits/time off. (But USUALLY don’t require large amounts of overtime; Walmart would rather hire another cashier to work a shift, then pay one cashier 1.5x after 40 hours have already been logged).

Union jobs tend to have many benefits negotiated for their members including time off and strict rules around over time proceedures and monitoring of those rules for abuse.

Many ‘White Collar’ jobs tend to be where the sweet spot of good salary, regular hours and good benefits/time off occur. I don’t think that it’s easy to state how common it is though… some people will have it pretty good, and some people might be missing one of those items. e.g. The salary is good, the work is usually 40 hours, and the time off is good, but the benefits are weak.

In my experience, the larger the company, the better the benefits since they get a little bit in the ways of economies of scale… But it’s not true for everyone, and every company is different.

Also, some jobs are very clear up front about the expectations and benefits vs. cost trade offs. If you’re going to work for one of the big consulting firms, you are going to work 60+ hours a week and you’re going to be flying out monday morning and not coming home until friday night (if you’re not just staying there). You will get lots of great experience, the chance to do lots of projects for differenct companies, make $100k (is the normal starting price for MBA grads), and the health benefits are good. Time off exists and it’s 3-5 weeks… but did I mention the 60+ hour work week?

Many things are trade offs, and there’s a wide spectrum of what people in america experience.

Right, and that’s why companies and countries are booming, because employees work 37.5 hours a week with 6 weeks off.

Much of the wealth in Europe is still old money, and unless Europe increases its productivity in some way, it will start losing against giants like China, etc.

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Gerard

I strongly disagree Alex, very strongly. First off, Europe, despite what the EU tries to portray is not one happy continent. There are big differences between the North and the South.
Second, working 37,5 hours is what some companies do, but certainly not all.
Yes, there are areas where Europe is getting fat and complacent, much like ancient Rome, and yes, we do have a very elaborate wellfare system and people take advantage of it. And yes, people do shun away form physical work and manufacturing and engineering and prefer government jobs and bank jobs and unsurance jobs. That is what is our real problem.
Losing to China? Perhaps, but so will the US. China has 1,3 billion inhabitants, once they are as productive as the Germans or the Japanese or the Americans, they will the most powerful economy.

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Gerard

Sorry Jim, but in Europe we get those 5 weeks regardless of seniority. You get it from day one.

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Natasha

I have worked as a contract consultant (hourly), and am currently working full-time(salary).

Income is income….happy to have it either way. ;0>>

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El Nerdo

I’m self-employed and price projects according to an estimate of hours worked plus expenses and overhead, but I’m looking at this article from a purely analytical standpoint.

It seems to me to boil down to this:

a) If you work to put food on the table and your life interests lie elsewhere, hourly pay might be the thing for you. Leave work early and manage your softball team.

b) If you love what you do and want to reach high in your career, then you can only have salaried work.

c) There’s a grey area in between, which is maybe when people are moving up to middle management positions, and that’s when they have to decide between the two options listed above. All the while considering Peter’s Principle.

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Tara@riceandbeanslife

I think it depends on who you work for but when I was in a salaried position I found they began to require me to work nearly 60-70 hours a week and valued my time far less than when I’d worked on an hourly basis. I actually had a meeting with the owner and explained to him that when I was hired I agreed to work occasional overtime to the tune of 10 or so hours a week when it was necessary. As the overtime became longer and constant I explained that if I worked that many more hours on a consistent basis for him it was time to either consider bumping my salary or hiring another person as I was essentially taking a pay cut by performing the job of almost 2 people instead of one. Luckily this worked for me and it wasn’t during difficult economic times. But I do believe that employers value time as a commodity of the employee far less in salaried positions and assume it’s for sale when it many not be.

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Stacie

I am currently hourly, making overtime in what is promising to be a VERY busy summer. But I know that in a year or so, I’ll probably be bumped to salary (with hopefully a decent payraise). I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not, but I figure it will do a lot more for my career than staying hourly will.

Even as hourly, I am allowed to leave early if we aren’t busy (without docking pay usually) but I still get payed overtime if I work more than 40 hours. I haven’t done this too much though, since I don’t want my boss to feel like I am taking advantage)

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krantcents

Salaried positions are generally abused by some employers. In most cases, the job requires more hours than it should to do a good job. Non-exempt (hourly) jobs are clerical or clearly defined positions. I used to have an executive job that averaged 60-70 hours a week.

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sara h

Many salaried employees are in fact eligible for overtime pay, myself included. It may or may not be time and a half for everyone. The option to get overtime pay could be a huge deciding factor when someone is choosing to go salary or hourly, so I think this inaccuracy in your article should be corrected so that there is no confusion.

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Money Reasons

My employer had to convert my job grade level to hourly. And while my manager said he would try to get my promoted as fast as possible, my experiencing being an hourly employee has changed my mind about being promoted for the reasons you specify above.

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Crystal

I sort of enjoy being in a nonexempt yet salaried position. I am guaranteed a salary of $35,500 a year (sucky for what I do, but I am on my way out) and benefits but if I work over 40 hours, I get one and a half times what would be my hourly salary ($16, so $24 an hour). The company simply doesn’t let us work more than 40 hours, but I am fine with that. 🙂

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Amanda

I work in the Structural Engineering field. Typically the drafters are hourly and the engineers are salaried, but we both get paid for overtime usually. The hourly get time and a half, but as an engineer I get paid straight time for any extra I work. I think this became the standard because engineers will quit if you abuse the overtime thing. I guess it’s nice to be in a job that is sort of in demand and have colleagues that will not stand for being worked to death. This practice still holds true during the bad economy with construction in the toilet.

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jim

“engineers will quit if you abuse the overtime thing”

That may apply to your area but it doesn’t apply to engineers in general. I know of many engineering roles that work long hours and don’t quit because of it. Long hours are considered the standard expectation in some areas.

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Tyler Karaszewski

My whole industry is salaried, so it’s pretty moot for me. Doesn’t bother me, though, I’ve never known anyone who gets paid hourly who makes more than I do, gets better benefits than I do, gets more vacation time than I do, or who has a more flexible schedule than I do. I can’t complain.

Example:

Time Off is [employer]’s progressive approach for U.S. employees to take paid time away from work to enjoy a vacation, recover from a temporary illness or injury, or take care of other personal needs. Our Time Off approach allows you greater freedom and flexibility to work with your manager to arrange a Time Off schedule that benefits yourself and your team. Time Off is paid time away from work and is in lieu of traditional vacation sick, and personal day programs.

There is no set number of days of hours of time away from work with this approach. As long as you are scheduled to work 20 or more hours per week, you are eligible for Time Off. If you are scheduled to work fewer than 20 hours per week, then you are not eligible for Time Off.

…

Because prolonged periods of absence often have cross-functional impacts, if you request more than 15 consecutive business days or 30 cumulative business days in a calendar year, two levels of management approval as well as HR approval is required.

The quote makes it seems like it applies to hourly employees too. I guess it would, if we had any, but in practice, it’s only salaried employees who get six weeks a year of paid vacation time.

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Rosa

Do people take 6 weeks? What I see a lot of is every time folks have a chunk of vacation scheduled, they work insane hours in the weeks leading up to it, finishing up big projects they are solely responsible for, and then keep in touch during the whole time they’re gone, in case any of their pet customers or projects has and issue and because otherwise they’re completely buried in emails when they get back. That’s assuming they can find two or three weeks in a row between ‘very important’ project deadlines when they can take off.

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jlg3rd

The rest of the world gets six weeks a year, only in America are the people worked to death. Just have a look around…..lots of overweight, stressed out people juggling way too many plates on a stick!

Usually this is the difference between hourly employees and salaried employees. (And sometimes retirement benefits e.g. 401k match, are usually only for salaried employees)

Yes, as a salaried employee you may end up working more hours for a ‘lower’ hourly rate. But when you factor in the additional benefit of healthcare, this is the reason for the difference.

I don’t buy the ‘management’ track option for salaried employees vs. hourly. If you are an awesome employee that they think you can advance and do great things and you just happen to be hourly, that won’t be the barrier.

Imagine this scenario where managment is thinking: “wow, bob has awesome management skills, and has some fantastic ideas, he could totally fix the problems at our company and send profits through the roof… alas he’s hourly, our hands are tied and there’s no way for him to advance…”

In my opinion it’s more likely that if you are an hourly employee in a possibly more menial role, then you just don’t have the same opportunities to show management how awesome you are. (And we’re never as awesome as we think we are).

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jim

Health insurance coverage usually isn’t limited to salary workers. Most full time hourly jobs have health insurance too.

Part time and lower paid jobs are the ones that get healthcare less often. But even many of those get health insurance too.

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J.R.C.

Ahh,I did not realize that. I think I was/have been operating off of a lot of presumptions.

Thanks for the reply!

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Dana

Very good points. The one and only time I’ve worked for a salary, it turned out that 14 hour days were the expected normal. No thank you. My current (salaried) boss works 60-70 hours a week because our section, formally with a staff of 10, has been reduced to 3. I often worry that I’m going to come in some Monday and find her dead of a heart attack.

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Ali

I’m hourly, and I love it. After my 8 hours, I’m out the door. However, I’m represented by a union, so even though I’m part time, I have excellent benefits, and my schedule and the number of hours I work every week do not change. Therefore, I’m guaranteed the same paycheck every two weeks, unless I work extra hours. Of course, I miss getting bonuses, but I’ll take autonomy over more money gladly.

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Melissa

There definitely are advantages to both. I’m on salary, which I like, because I have a guaranteed paycheque and my hours are a lot more flexible. When I was paid hourly (for the same job), I was always really particular about making sure I was in the office at a certain time, and left at a certain time, etc. Now, I swear, I haven’t been in by nine am in months! But all my work gets done, and I usually stay a bit later, so it all works out in the end. The flexibility is really just a great perk. Plus, my boss is really great about making sure that overtime is made up for. So like, my boss lets me save up hours that I put in when it’s busy, and take time off when it’s not. I probably put in an extra 2-3 days of overtime every quarter, which works out to an additional 8-10 days off every year, and my boss lets me take them! That’s not that typical, as far as I can tell. Still, it would be nice to have the opportunity to make a bit of extra money by overtime, but it’s all a wash in the end, I guess.

The other advantage is that your boss will, likely, be a lot more flexible about giving you unexpected time off. When my grandmother passed away suddenly last year, I took about four days off work to be with my family. I texted my boss to let her know what had happened, literally a half hour before I was supposed to be at the office, and that I’d be taking time off, and she just said to be with my family, and we’d figure the rest out later. I got paid for the full four days, and she just asked me to make up the equivalent of two days at a later point (extra hours here and there). I’m sure that wouldn’t have been the case if I were an hourly employee, and though it might have worked out in overtime over the next few months, I definitely couldn’t have afforded to just lose almost a full week’s pay.

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Michael

I was working full time (salary) and doing consulting (hourly) on the side. When the consulting gig wanted me to start working 40+ hours a week, I told him I would need a guarantee of 6 months pay in order to quit my full time job.

So in my consulting for him, I take a straight paycheck regardless of the number of hours I work. I nearly always work more than 40 hours, but the flexibility of a work-from-home anytime-I-want job made the reduced effective hourly pay worth it. (Reduced for that consulting job, I still make more than I did in my full-time job).

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Leigh

Personally, I love my salaried job. Sure the occasional 12 hour days suck, but there are also occasional 4-6 hour days. I like knowing that $X appears in my bank account and not tracking hours. For my job, tracking hours instead of tracking work would suck. I’ll go home when I have completed a sufficient amount of the work on my to do list, whether *I* decide that needs 5 hours or 12 hours.

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imelda

But see, most salaried jobs are not like that. In most salaried positions, there are periodic 12 hour days and almost NEVER 4-6 hour days. At least in my experience.

In my opinion, the “exempt” classification is nothing more than a scam. I have never worked in an office where it was culturally acceptable to work 40 hours a week. If you show up at 9 and leave at 5, you will be noticed. And I work in nonprofits!

If “Exemption” were truly fulfilling its purpose, then comp time would be mandatory. But it’s not, and exempt employees are getting ripped off.

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getagrip

I agree with imelda above in that most salaried positions I’ve seen the newbie who works 40 hours a week getting their actual work done in that time is either told they need to adjust their thinking and work the normal 50+ hours a week the other salaried employees are putting in, or fired if they don’t pick up the hints in short order about working the extra time. Sometimes it isn’t about the “work” but rather the appearance.

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bon

If you care about overtime at all or actually pay attention to when you are working more than 40 hrs a week, you either a) have kids or b) have a job, but not a career.

If you care about really building your income, you should work to find a career – and be salaried.

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Rosa

Which is a ridiculous situation we’ve gotten ourselves into.

My partner has a career he loves. He could care less about the money (seriously, he used to forget to cash bonus checks and they would expire and the company would cut new ones and badger him until he cashed them.) But he loves his work, and he just accepts that it means working 50+ hours/week all the time.

I was on a career track for a few years. I worked a ton of hours, I gave up a lot of outside interests.

Then we had a kid. It’s just not feasible for us to both have “careers” that total up to 110+ hours of work every week between us. So, since I cared less about my career, I went back to having a job. As long as companies make such ridiculous demands on their best workers, most of us will eventually make that choice.

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jim

There is no reason single and/or career minded people shouldn’t care about overtime or working >40hrs. We shouldn’t all expect to work a zillion hours for free just to get ahead in our careers. If “career” by definition means working long hours without extra compensation then I’ll be happy having just a “job” that has better hours.

I’ve known a 3 people off the top of my head who had that “career” with long hours who burned out after a few years. Whats the point?

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sarah

You forgot c) you have a life.

I don’t have kids, and I do have a career that I care about very much, and I don’t want to have a job that requires overtime.

I’m a mental health social worker and I’m willing to deal with a lot of crap that most people wouldn’t (last week I got punched in the face by a client) but there’s a lot more to my life than my career and I want to know that I’ll have time to take care of my relationships, my physical health, and enjoy every day while I can.

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bon

I don’t disagree – but if you have a career (i.e. a track of jobs you plan on building upon over time) where you can’t have any sort of life – then you’re probably on the wrong career track.

I work around the clock – but I enjoy what I do – so I rarely feel worked to the bone. I get to live in Asia, so while I regularly have 9pm and 5am calls with the US, I can go to Bali for the weekend, so that’s a trade off I’m fine with.

It is all about priorities and balance.

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SB (One Cent AT A Time)

I have worked as both salaried as well as hourly wage employee in past. If you are comfortable with a job and have been doing since years, then you become a sort of indispensible, adding to your job security, at that time you can consider going hourly way.

Also if you are into two jobs or depend on part time work, it makes a case for going hourly.

If money is not that important factor as power and fame to you, going salary way is best option.

I have mentioned in my blog post as to how I negotiated for salary increases in past. Link is below.

One example of how a salaried job may not be ideal was a recent part-time job I applied for at an advertising agency.

They wanted a part-time person on a salary (scaled down for part-time hours), but upon further discussion, it was revealed that I would be at their beck and call, and might even have to come in on my days off.

I have worked in advertising before and I know people stay into the wee hours of the night to get campaigns finished. That’s just the way it is. I was full-time then and I understood that.

Even as a part-time employee, I would be expected to stay until my job (proofreading, which is done last) was completed. Basically, they wanted to pay part-time wages for what could be a full-time job during busy times. I declined. It wasn’t what I was looking for at that point my life.

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jim

Good article.

Personally I think that hourly is usually the way to go. Too many salary positions have no significant benefits and demand too many hours. But of course it all depends on the job in question.

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No Debt MBA

I had a job where I was paid based on time worked and I loved it. It seemed really fair (to someone who had always been salary) to be paid for the time you put in and not paid for what you didn’t put in. Honestly I’d probably go for an hourly job over a salaried any day all other things being equal.

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Annie

My husband was salaried for a major American clothing company. A whopping $32k a year for 60+ hours of work. It was the last straw when buyers from Hong Kong were calling our house at 11pm.

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Matthew

I am in the same position as the author. I am one of two non-union management employees who is non-exempt at my job. I do the same work as the exempt managers, but I get paid for my overtime. As I have been working 50 hour weeks I have been pulling some nice overtime checks.

Now I would like to get a “promotion” to an exempt position because it represents a little more status and opportunity, but unless I received a 25% bump in pay when I loose my overtime I may loose money. As other benefits are the same I don’t see this happening.

This is the second time this happened to me. In my first job out of college I went from “part time” 40+ hours to full time 40+ hours in the same position, but had to take a hourly pay cut to do it. It represented job security, but I was getting paid less then the people I supervised.

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Jan

A friend is in contracting with the government. He works hourly and makes close to six figures. He gets no overtime, sick leave or vacation. He does have comprehensive health care and a great 401K. He can leave or be fired with a 24 hour notice. Still, he is very happy with the position.

I think the working world is changing quickly.

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R S

While an hourly vs salary discussion is helpful for those just entering the workforce, I think it is poor advice to recommend basing this decision on pay.
The nebulous factor is job satisfaction. Some of my friends have highly undesirable 1 hour commutes in awful traffic to work, but the work makes it worth it. Computing their hourly pay, after the commute and easily 10-12 hr days, comes out to be far less than the production line workers in their facilities, who are compensated hourly.

It depends on your mindset when you get your first job. I see people having huge difficulties going from hourly to salaried because of the mentality “I’m not getting paid for this overtime”. But in this economy, where salaried workers are taking hourly positions to make ends meet, they tend to find hourly jobs very restrictive.
For example, as a homeowner, there are multitudes of things that go wrong with the house, require contractors working on it. Being salaried, I can run out, manage the contractors & come back in. If I don’t make it back in that’s ok – I still get paid. I can get myself caught up the next day, or even come at 10p, after typical business hours.
Our production workers are forced to take a vacation day, or get a few hours less of pay, if they have to run out for such an errand. They do not have the option of making it up at 10pm, since their job requires everyone to be there from 7a – 4p. Their job is reliant of everyone working together, whereas mine is more independent, and there are many things I can get done on my own.

This includes things like running out to the gym, taking a class, etc. The flexibility adds up to a lot more than just pure money. I can advance my career with more education, and not worry about the financial aspect of taking time out of my work day. I can better maintain my health, manage the stress of life by running out for a bit as needed.

Totally different mindset. I get that it’s not for everyone.

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Alyssa

I’m hourly and the overtime is awesome. However, all of us at the office work 50+ hours per week, so me being hourly or salary wouldn’t affect that as much. The biggest downside to being hourly is the use of my gym pass. I’m grateful that my company pays for my gym pass in our building; however, if any of the salaried employees use the gym during lunch, their pay isn’t directly affected. If I go to the gym for an hour on two separate days, I’ve already lost more in my hourly pay than the gym costs per month.

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David R

I had the interesting experience of working the same job at the same company as both a salaried and an hourly worker. The pay was roughly the same, since overtime was discouraged unless there was an emergency, but the way I thought about work was much different when I worked hourly than when I worked salaried.

First, some background: the job was a customer-facing, technical support IT job that required shift work. These shifts would change depending on when the customer was scheduled to use our resources.

When I was salaried for the first 9 years of this job, the shifts were either five 8-hour days, from 7:00-16:00, 15:00-midnight, or 23:00-8:00, or shifting schedule where we would work three 12-hour days one week and four the next week (with some exceptions during the busy parts of the year)

I earned almost exactly the same amount hourly as I did salaried, and the benefits were the same as well.

When I was salaried, the management did a good job of regulating our hours for the most part. If we worked 50 or 60 hours one week, we’d get days off later to compensate (though it was never called comp-time) I suspect that in the end, the company came out a little ahead on the hours, getting about 42 hours a week from us, but we were ok with that.

When we worked hourly, management worked very hard to make it so that we were not eligible for overtime. In one sense, this was nice since your schedule was a little more predictable. On the other hand, we lost that wonderful 12-hour schedule and those perpetual three- and four-day weekends!

When I was salaried, I had the flexibility of being able to stay late to finish a project rather than having to interrupt my momentum and go home at a certain time. When we were hourly, you had to leave at the end of your shift so you wouldn’t accumulate overtime. This was more annoying than I thought it would be since I didn’t like to interrupt my momentum and train of thought when in the middle of a small project.

I watched the clock a lot more when I was hourly than when I was salaried, probably to the detriment of the company. The result was that a lot of projects would not get started in the late afternoon, because I wouldn’t have time to really get going on them before I had to leave.

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Rosa Rugosa

David,
I think you are the first one to mention the postive aspects of being able to work extra hours, regardless of no extra pay, in order to get things done. In my company, OT is only allowed under extreme circumstances for non-exempt employees. This can create stress when workers just cannot get everything done during the work day. I consider it somewhat of a luxury to be able to stay late or take work home if I need to do so in order to stay on top of things!

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Rosa

To me, it’s the flexibility – if you have the option of workign more when there’s more work, and less when there’s less, it’s a good thing. But that seems really rare – most workplaces seem to be “at least 40 hours” so you don’t balance the times when you have a lot to do with times when you don’t have to be there.

Me, I run my own schedule, so if I am in the middle of something (and parenting doesn’t interfere) I can work extra hours that day. But the number of hours my employer budgets per week is set, so I just work less on other days that week.

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Alan

I just made the move to a salaried position. Only time will tell if it was the right move. Not that I had much of an option with a recent promotion I was determined to be “exempt.”

I was moved into a salary position with compensation. After a period I lost certain bonuses that were available in an hourly position but again was compensated. I could have technically made more in a year in my old position, but now I no longer worry about peaks and valleys when it comes to my income. I won’t miss the valleys but those peaks would still be nice…

The move wasn’t just about my potential earning for the coming year but my potential earning in coming years. This was a better career move for myself and my family.

There are expecations and responsibilites with this new position that my old one was lacking. Some nights I am required to stay later and there are rare instances that require I spend a few hours here on a day off. But in the grand scheme of things I am working less hours than previously and my pay is for more consistent. Which makes planning our budget easier when considering my income.

It may turn out to be a bust. But for the time being I believe it was a positive move.

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Kathy A.

Are you sure the sales consultant would be exempt? Seems to me that would be true only if they are an outside sales person.

Many companies get the exempt employee thing wrong. I even worked for an employee benefits firm that did. (Then they tried to say we had professional degrees, when I was the only one in my department with more than a high school diploma. Yeah, right.)

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Clare

I’ve been in the same boat, where a small business I worked for classified everyone as exempt without any regard for their actual job duties. They were very sketchy about it. We were told to always put 40 hours on our timesheet, no matter how many hours we worked. They claimed it was “company culture” not to work over 40 hours. When we inevitably *had* to work over 40 hours to do an event, they would not pay overtime – we could choose to take an afternoon off the following week.

REtail/service employees who get at least 50% of their pay from commissions and make at least 150% of minimum wage can also be salaried.

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Courtney

I’m salaried, and the core benefits (vacation accrual, retirement, insurance, etc) are the same as hourly but my salaried job allows me a) flex time – I have core hours from 9:30-3:30 and can work any schedule that covers those hours; b) credit hours – can accrue and hold up to 40 hours of overtime to be used at my discretion like vacation or sick leave; c) telecommuting one day a week. None of those things would be options to me if I was an hourly worker.

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Jen H.

That sounds heavenly. What field are you in, if I may ask?

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Courtney

I work in intellectual property management for a major government contractor (science-y; I have a Ph.D., not a J.D.)

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Lisa

I think it does vary widely as to the benefits of being in either position. I have done both. For me, my salaried position (in healthcare field) gave me a large bonus (depending on the company’s profits) but I worked until 8:30 pm everyday. The schedule was not flexible at all. As a current hourly retail worker, I get a tiny bonus (again, depending on profits) but have a very flexible schedule. I also make 50% LESS than my former job. Honestly, I have kids who need my attention so I’ll take the hourly position. As time goes on, I hope to get back to the former job since the pay was so much better.

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Andy

I guess I am in an abnormal “salaried” position. The only real difference for me between salaried and hourly at my job is that I don’t have to clock in and if I’m 5-10 minutes late or stay 15 minutes over, it doesn’t affect my pay. I work 7 days on 7 days off 2nd shift in a hospital. My schedule is not flexible at all. I am relieving someone at the beginning of my shift and am relieved by someone at the end. I have never been asked to stay over after my shift ends though I do sometimes. If they need extra help on my off week, I am paid a PRN work rate thats not time and a half, but is still a little better than what I normally make. I would have a huge problem with a job that asked me to work 60+ hours a week beyond my normal schedule without any compensation. I guess thats why I stayed out of the business world!

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Krista

I was in a salaried position because I had a professional license (company policy) and did the same job as a non-licensed coworker who was hourly. We worked 50+ hours so I made a LOT less than he did. “Nothing could be done” because it was policy. Also, I never made the same amount if I worked less than 40 hours a week. If I worked 38 (if I went to an appt and didn’t take sick or vacation time) my pay was docked by my calculated hourly wage, based on 40 hours, of course. I never saw any benefit whatsoever to hourly pay in my field. It sure sounded good at one time though!

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Peggy

My husband’s job is like that. He’s treated as a salaried employee when he works late and on weekends, but as an hourly employee when he needs to take time off.

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Mark

The big difference between salaried and hourly is the protections that a salaried position offers you. If you are an hourly employee, the company can fire you at any time if they believe they are not getting the amount of work out of you, which leaves you without unemployment since it is very easy for the company to say you didn’t do your job.

As for salaried employees, they mostly get laid off because in order to fire a salaried employee the company has to document what you did wrong and show negligence even after an “improvement plan” had been put into place. This makes it much easier for out of work salaried employees to get unemployment since they were let go through no fault of their own.

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Jen H.

Except for those of us in a right-to-work state.

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jim

Mark, I don’t think federal law defines different rules for firing people for hourly vs. salary. There may be state laws or company policies along those lines. Hourly employees may get fired more often with less cause but thats just cause some employers do what they can get away with. I don’t think its really any easier or harder to fire one over the other. Its just as easy to claim a salaried person didn’t do their job as an hourly one.

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Steve

This depends heavily on state law (and national law, outside the US). Many states have “at will” employment, which means they don’t have to give any reason whatsoever for terminating your employment. Many states pay unemployment even if you were terminated for performance. Perhaps the biggest nugget of truth in your comment was that hourly employees are more likely to be the first ones laid off. However, even that is just a probability, not a guarantee.

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E. Murphy

Sorry, Mark, but this is dead wrong. I worked in human resources and both salaried/hourly have the same standards for collecting unemployment because of firing/layoff.

And you certainly don’t necessarily have more job security because you’re salaried. That would vary company by company. Sometimes middle management is the first to be booted.

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Julia

I’ll second that being salaried helps in future careers. When I went to salaried at age 25 I actually made less than hourly due to the overtime I had earned previously. But when I moved across the country the new company was impressed that I had been on salary at such a young age, it helped get a new job.

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Adam P

While I doubt I will ever get to choose between salary and hourly (unless I open my own company), I did recently make a choice between a cushy job that let me work from home with regular Caribbean travel and a job paying roughly 40% more but was in an office, no travel and meant significant overtime during busy periods.

There were a few more issues at stake such as advancement (in the old job I would have plateaued for probably 10 years before significant promotions were available-but it was a “dream job” in most people’s eyes), whereas the new higher paying job had opportunity galore.

In the end I am okay with the switch, the increased money lets me travel to the islands NOT on a work trip and I’m excited to climb the ladder again. I don’t think about extra hours that much as long as you enjoy and are challenged by what you do. If you’re working with friends at something challenging and rewarding, then working 60 hour weeks isn’t so bad at all!

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First Gen American

Another downside to hourly is that usually there is a salary cap. In places I’ve worked, many hourly workers are a lower level position in terms of career band, so they often max out on their salary band long before they hit retirement age, so they’ll get a lump sum, but not an actual raise come review time.

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Em

This article is missing some major points. Typically you do NOT get to choose between exempt and nonexempt status. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets some tests to determine IF an employee can be exempt. Basing it on a “salaries test” and a “duties test”.
Do a little research next time.

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Lyn

I agree. I’ve been salaried my entire career – but not always exempt from overtime. It’s the best of both worlds – I was guaranteed a ‘base’ but, did get paid for overtime. Of course, once I started managing other employees, writing policy and budgets, then I was exempt and lost the overtime benefit!

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April

Correct on FLSA, but the article is discussing choosing between two different job offers, one which is hourly and the other which is salary, or two different positions within a company, one paid hourly and the other salary.

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Trina

If they are comparable jobs, I’m very surprised that one is hourly and one is salaried. As the PP noted, the positions would have to be put to the same tests. If they are truly different jobs altogether, then it seems like it’s really more a question of whether you want more responsibility, and are willing to work more than 40 hours per week.

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Kate

I no longer work outside the home, so my experience may not be yours.
I always worked hourly and preferred it! I was a low to mid grade technician for most of my career, but had other skills so I was a valued employee and generally well compensated. My benefits were good, but to me the most valuable benefits were intangible. When my shift was over, I clocked out and was done for the day. If I had to work later, I was paid for my extra work. If through extenuating circumstances I had to work on weekends or holidays (it sometimes happened) I made a small fortune in overtime pay. I never had to spend a fortune on clothes.
I almost never experienced micromanaging and the ‘suits’ were usually too caught up their own drama, so I could cruise below the radar.
I’ll take hourly over salary any day!

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Jen H.

I’m currently in a salaried, flex-time position. It’s horrible. Contrary to the job description on hiring, I am expected to be available 24/7 for whomever needs me, with very little notice. For the record, I’m a paralegal, and there’s really no ‘ladder’ for me to climb, so no incentive to kill myself for ‘Chinese overtime’ (the more you work, the less you make per hour – by the 60th hour, you could be down to $5/hour). I understand why the attorneys work long hours – it’s for their future, and the legal assistants make time and a half, but my employers don’t seem to understand why we (the paralegals) might not be ok with the situation. I’ve finally gone back to school, with or without their approval, in a desperate bid to get out of here. Hopefully I won’t lose my job because of it…

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Rosa

I’m hourly part-time flex right now, and the folks I report to keep saying “They should make you full time!” like it’s a reward. If I wanted full time, I’d be full time. There are only about 10 part-time flex positions in the whole company, and every time one opens up internally there are a ton of applications.

Unlike hourly part-time I’ve done before, this job has no insurance benefits. The company has no reason NOT to offer the option for other jobs – they’d save a ton of money, from folks not working when there’s not work to do and having people to cover busy times without going into overtime. I’m certainly getting as much work done as in my previous position, where work came in bursts but we were required to clock 40+ hours/week. But the corporate culture is that everyone should aspire to 40-60 hours/week of paid work.

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Andrea

Jen,

You should research salaried employees, specifically exempt vs non-exempt. If sometimes you are seriously down to $5 an hour, that is illegal, you must be paid At Least minimum wage regardless of salaried or not. Also, salaried exempt employees must meet certain standards, such as having direct supervision over other employees. Do you supervise others? You may be non-exempt, which means you are entitled over time for any time worked over 40 (even salaried). My boyfriend went thru this recently. He was salaried, yet at a low salary somewhere in the $30000’s. To me salaried employees, are white collar upper management making upwards of $80,0000, so I thought it was strange he was salaried (esp, since he was required to work OT, every week). I started doing research, he started asking questions to HR, and a few months later, he is now hourly, after getting back paid for two years worth of OT. He’s using that money to go back to school : )

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Mike

Finally, someone who knows something about this! It is illegal to put an employee on salary to avoid paying overtime, exempt positions not withstanding, and it seems that this is done regularly. Not only must an employee supervise at least two full-time employees to be exempt, but the salaried employee must also make decisions that are substantive to the direction of the corporation. They must also earn a minimum amount (just over $27,000 the last time I looked). There are one or two smaller criteria, too, but I don’t remember what they are.

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Hannah

This article only talks about the difference in pay, not the difference between hourly work and a salaried position. If you’re hired for a specific project or responsibility, it doesn’t make sense to schedule a precise number of hours. Hourly pay makes sense for a lot of jobs, from low paying jobs like retail, to high paying jobs like plumbing and consulting. But I think the situation April described where the same job gives you a choice between hourly and salaried is out of the norm. Usually the nature of the work makes one choice more logical.

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sarah

I’m guessing it varies a lot by job. My husband worked for an hourly wage for his first few years as an architect. He regularly worked 60-80 hours per week and sometimes over 100 (it’s a cult, I swear). There was a lot of pressure to work like this as well as internal motivation, since all that overtime more than doubled his paycheck.

Moving to a salaried position meant he got paid about the same per paycheck or a little less (the base rate was much higher) and was able to start saying no to unreasonable requests. He still worked 60 hours but those 80-100 hour weeks dwindled without the financial motivation.

For me, I love being in a salaried position. I had an hourly position a few years back that paid much more than what I currently make, and I found it so stressful, trying to figure out if I had come in late, or stayed late, or took a day off, how much would my paycheck be. It made me think about money way too much. Knowing exactly what’s coming in lets me relax and not worry about it.

In both of our professions, though, hourly jobs are only for entry-level workers or people with lower-level qualifications (in my job, if you have a bachelor’s you’re hourly, master’s is salaried). So there’s not a real choice to be made.

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Pamela

Ha ha ha! It is a cult, isn’t it? I’ve known my husband to work 36 hours straight when getting ready for a big deadline. I’ve done such things too in my nonprofit career but not nearly as often.

I think they brainwash everyone in architecture school to believe if they work insane hours they just might be the next Frank Lloyd Wright. 🙂

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Kate

I tried poking around the Internet to find out to what extent hourly positions are common outside of retail, manufacturing, trades and nursing, but unfortunately didn’t find much, minus a reference to hourly wages usually being associated with blue collar jobs.

How common is it to be able to choose between hourly and salaried? The only instance I can think of in any of the above industries is between worker bee and management.

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Annie

Government jobs are hourly.

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jim

Many government jobs are salary. It depends on the job.

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Kate

Mine certainly isn’t!

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A

My government job is technically hourly, in that all of us (managers too) have to log our hours, and technically there’s an hourly wage listed on our pay stubs, but we will never receive overtime and our checks will always be for exactly the same amount every pay – even the job offer letter phrased it as “$XXX biweekly” instead of “$XX.XX hourly for XX hours per day/week/pay period.”

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washift

The record keeping in the public sector (government) is about accountability. Having worked in public and private sector in management positions, I did record and submit hours in the Sr. Mgmt government position I was in. That did not make the job hourly by classification. It is a record keeping requirement for government. I was not paid overtime.

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Megan E.

Kate,

I worked in a hospital and I was salary while my coworkers (a program director and a social worker) were hourly. They worked around the same hours as me, but while I was told to stay late and finish stuff sometimes, they HAD to go home if the hospital didn’t want to pay them anymore.

A lot of nurses are also hourly and others in hospitality fields.

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Rosa

For me, it’s been the choice between part time vs. full time in very similar jobs, and between taking or not taking promotions when I was already working full time.

In a lot of companies, the shift from “team lead” (hourly) to “supervisor” (salary) is just a title change and less money, with the carrot of eventual promotion dangled to get people to put in ridiculous hours and on-call time for years at a time. If you choose the company well, it pans out over time…assuming your future self wants the corporate job your past self chose to sacrifice for. Which isn’t always true.

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Wilson

Many professional fields, like law, now offer hourly options. The drawback is no participation if the firm has a health insurance option, no vacation/ sick days, and no 401k if it is offered. The upsides are if I want to leave early to take my infant to the park, I leave. Of course I don’t get paid for that time, but I make up my work on my own time b/c I’m still a professional and that’s what’s expected. No overtime either, but if I have a busy week I get paid for the total amount of hours worked, whereas if I were salary I would hope the firm would be generous at the end of the year with my bonus but that rarely is the case anymore. A lot of professional fields are hiring by the hour now because they’re uncertain of future staffing needs. Others, such as myself, are switching to it b/c of the flexibility. It depends on your priorities. I know other lawyers, doctors, and accountants all doing the same. So it’s not just clerical vs. management, it’s becoming more widespread in this economy.

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Tasha

I work for a large legal research firm offering both hourly and salaried positions. While the salaried positions tend to be the higher career-oriented positions, the firm still offers health insurance, 401k with company match, sick days and vacation to hourly workers. I’d like to move into a salaried position eventually, but I have no problems working an hourly position in the meantime. I think the benefits offered depend more on the company/firm you’re working for than whether you’re hourly or salaried.

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Steve

This comes up frequently in the software industry, but it’s usually framed as “contractor vs. employee” (where contractor could be consultant, temp, etc.) Usually a contractor gets paid more per hour, but doesn’t get benefits, stock options, etc.

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eemusings

To be honest, I have never seen the benefits of being salaried FT when there is an hourly equivalent. I worked shifts and weekends at my old job, but I was union and hourly, so at least i was well compensated for it.

At my current company, all employees are salaried. I expect there will be overtime (more than flexibility for things like doctor’s appointments will make up for) but it’s work that by and large I am happy to do within reasons (and the good thing is I can work from almost anywhere if need be.)

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Kristen

In my first job out of grad school, I was generously offered a move from hourly to salaried when I got pregnant with my daughter so that my health insurance would be paid by the company instead of myself. There were also retirement benefits, maternity leave, disability leave, and bonuses that were then avalale to me that weren’t available when I was hourly. Those benefits outweighed the extra money I had the potential of earning as an hourly employee.

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Nancy L.

In my experience, salaried positions generally provide additional compensation such as bonuses and stock options that hourly positions don’t. In addition, most management tracks involve salaried positions, so often there are special training programs to help develop talent. My boss was invited to participate in a special MBA program for employees at a certain pay grade–it was specifically set up around our work schedules.

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Rosa

You’re right about management track – sometimes it looks like the first few levels of “salaried” are just hazing for the real jobs – “look how many hours she worked, for the same rate of pay!”

But I have had lots of hourly jobs, with bonuses & profit-sharing, where I made as much per hour as my salaried managers and supervisors…the real money was still 2 or 3 levels above them, and they were working 60 hours a week.

I don’t know any salaried people who only put in 40 hours/week and, truthfully, it looks like a bad deal most of the time. I’d rather have a life than an extra $10-$20K.

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Charles

This article is unrealistic and out of tune with the times. Most people don’t have the luxury of choosing between multiple job offers, let alone a full time job with benefits.

I’ve spent 3 years looking for full time employment. I am barely surviving on sporadic temp work, no benefits, hourly wages, with minor bonuses for performance. Now the performance bonuses have been eliminated, and the job has switched to “piecework.” I get paid 50 cents for each piece of paperwork I process. I used to get $11.75 an hour. Now with piecework, I’m guaranteed only $10/hour minimum, I have to work harder than ever to earn the same wages I did before. And now I feel like if I take a bathroom break, I just lost a dollar of wages.

Perhaps you could address the realities of the modern workplace as the masses experience it. Perhaps you could focus on how workers can maximize unemployment insurance benefits, food stamps, and state funded medicare health insurance, and how employers deliberately structure their jobs to avoid paying “permatemps” honest wages so they have to live off government supported programs for the poor.

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Erin

There is something really wrong with our economy today. Unemployment is rampant yet companies are making record-breaking profits. Employees turn into desk slaves while the “boss” has champagne parties in his posh suburban home or takes the week off to hang out at the lake. The working man needs to take back some of this power. I’m not sure exactly how to do this yet, but I am trying to make myself irreplaceable at work. Once I get them where I want them, I’m going to ask for a raise and for remote access. It’s time for a new economy, my friends.

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sam

I think your talking about a union.

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jlg3rd

The posh parties happen more in the private sector than in Union companies. The rich are getting richer and the middle class is getting squezzed out!

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washift

Having worked in both union and non union environments. There are unions in both the public and private sector. Union and company leadership are both capable of questionable spending.

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Tage

It’s called productivity. Companies laid off people during the recession and were often able to sustain levels of output: productivity went up. Why hire more people just because you’re making more money? Companies aren’t required to hire lots of people just because they operating in America…

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Luke

I’d argue that’s a gross oversimplification.

During the recession, companies downsized their workforces and those who were fortunate enough to keep their jobs were forced to work longer, more demanding hours, unpaid overtime and many folk live in a state of constant panic that their job will disappear if they complain about this, that they’ll be the next person to disappear into the unemployment black hole.

Yes, productivity went up – because harried staff worked their behinds off and were/are taken advantage of every day.

I’d argue that this isn’t sustainable and if firms continue to pay people less for longer hours and more work, something’s got to give.

*That’s* why more hiring is needed.

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mvr

If you become irreplaceable, than your manager is not doing their job. One of the manager’s most important jobs is to cross train employees, so that company doesn’t get in a situation, which you are hoping for.
To me this is almost selfish. In your case, what would happen with the business if you get sick, take some time off or decide to leave company? If the answer is “I don’t care”, you doing it wrong. You should do your best for the business at all time and that’s how you will achieve your job security. The rest will come….

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slcccom

I disagree. There are many cases where the company has not earned any loyalty, and it is EARNED.

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the other Tammy

Piece work stinks!
I worked in a factory while I was in college and we worked in teams. My partner was on piecework while I was hourly. I had to process all the parts my piecework partner produced every shift. So my partner would work 8 hours straight, no breaks, to get as many pieces made as he could, and I had to bust my tail to keep up…even though I wasn’t getting paid for working that way. It’s great to wolf down your sandwich and go to the bathroom then dash back to work to find a stack of parts waiting for you…it was very stressful, I was behind and playing catch-up all the time.

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Abby

Charles, keep in mind that even if unemployment is 9%, that means that roughly 91% of the population is employed.

The fact that April’s article is targeted towards those who have a job hardly means that it’s “out of touch with the times.”

If you’d like a better job, by all means, go get one! I was laid off at the height of the recession, sent out 250 resumes, and had a job offer within 2 weeks. It can be done if you’re willing to work for it.

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Luke

Does anyone else get tired of the gung-ho attitude of people who say ‘I lost a job and got another one instantly, so you can too!’?

I have numberous family members who are unemployed (in the UK) and have dilligently sent off dozens of applications *a week* for *months* (6 months in one case, over a year in the other).

The applications are well written, they have skills and they’re willing to do pretty much anything within reason, but they’re not getting jobs.

Sometimes it’s not as easy as ‘just get a job’…

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Abby

I can see how it’s annoying to be told to go out and get another job, but really, what’s the alternative? I find it much more exasperating to hear people gripe about their situation without taking any positive action.

As J.D. might say, no one cares more about your situation than you. If you want to improve it, it’s up to you.

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phoenix

It really depends on where you are and what field you are in. Two groups of people are hit especially hard in this recession: more experienced employees (20+ years) and men. The reason? They were paid more so employers see them as more expensive to hire. But if you’re willing to take too drastic of a hit to your former salary, employers are wary because they wonder why and are nervous the employee will be out looking for a higher paid job, using the current job as a layover until they can get back to the higher salary. And if you’re unemployed for more than a month or so, it becomes extremely difficult to find a job because there’s a wariness of wondering why this person hasn’t found a job yet.

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Shaaronie

I agree with your overall sentiment. However, the actual unemployment rate is much higher. The feds don’t include those who have stopped looking for work or have been unable to find work after exhausting benefits. The actual unemployment number could be significantly as high as 30 to 40%, although that is my personal opinion based upon how the unemployment rate is calculated.

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Perrius Maximus

Actually, Abby, you are gravely mistaken. 9% unemployment does not mean “that 91% of the population is working”. I am certain that the current occupants of the White House would like us all to believe that drivel, but it simply is not true. Unemployment figures only represent the population of America that is actually looking for a job. It does not factor in all of the people who have fallen off unemployment and simply quit looking for work…and it does not account for all of those on Government assistance. The real facts are thus: 51% of America is on some form of assistance. Figures for those actually employed full time are substantially lower than they were just 5 years ago. We have Obamacare to thank for that. That one piece of Legislation has created a dearth of part time positions, which have usurped full time positions in many companies. Add to that the fact that the country has 10.4 million people looking for work, another 3.3 million who have given up the search as futile, 14 million on disability, and 37 million who have retired. Combine that with our sluggish economy….and I assure that it is sluggish….and you wind up with more people leaving the work force each year than entering it.

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Suzanne

I don’t think you adequately stated the benefit of a salaried position in terms of the impact on lifetime earning potential. In most cases, salaried positions are coveted for a reason: they are usually linked to higher responsibilities and higher career potential. Management is salaried while lower-level staff is hourly. You did mention it a bit, but not enough. There is a strict limit to earnings potential for hourly employees while salaried ones can progress much further based on their talent, effort and performance. In the example, you say its a benefit that your boss is more likely to give more work to the salaried employee – that provides better resume-building, job security, and visibility in the firm. All good things. But you’re right – you may not have to stay as late.

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Chase

In general it seems like salary postitions are careers, whereas hourly positions are just jobs.

While each have their respective advantages and disadvantages I am starting a very good salary job in 6 days and cannot wait, and yes it’s one of the 60+ hour a week type salary job, maybe more. I have been hourly for the last 2 years now and am sick of it.

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Emily

There is so much more to a salaried position than whether or not you make overtime. As someone else commented, “Salaried positions are careers; hourly positions are jobs.”

The question isn’t how much do you make per hour. The question is, do you want a job or a career?

Some people only want a job. That’s fine; plenty of room for that. But an hourly position isn’t better for you in the long term just because you have the potential for overtime pay.

I haven’t held an hourly job since college. In my field, the idea of someone with an hourly position having any kind of upward mobility is laughable.

Yes, I work overtime. Without additional pay. My salary includes an allowance for the expected overtime hours, and my hours vary from 40 to 70 a week depending on what’s going on. As management, my job is not to watch the clock, it’s to get things done.

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Mary

Just wondering if Emily, you have children, and if so the ages. I have a 2 and 6 year old, a salary job, I agree with you about salaried jobs often being “careers”. But I cannot imagine if my job required 40-70 hours a week. (unless the high end was EXTREMELY rare.) That would destroy my grip on homelife. (Not criticizing you, just wondering if you DO have children, how you make that work.) Haha, and I say “my grip on homelife” as if I actually have that. 😉 It is tentative even with a 35-45 hour a week salaried job.

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Sara Thompson

Our company Assistant Controller and HR never work over 30 hours. They said if they work over 35+ hours that mean there salary is not paying enough.

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Max

It depends on what your looking for. I was offered salary with benefits instead I took 52$ an hour. Sure, I could move into management and potentially make more but it’s an easy trap to trade a few thousand per year in guaranteed income for a lot of ‘unpaid’ overtime.

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Steve

Not all hourly jobs are bad.

My situation: I work as an equipment technician in the semiconductor industry. In a nutshell, I’m a robot mechanic. I LOVE my job and consider it a career that I intend to retire doing. I also make over $100K a year and am about 25% away from my max possible salary. I’m 41 and live well below my means so that money goes a LONG way. Contrast that with the salaried Engineers I work with. They work 60+ hrs a week, have phone conferences at 2am with factories in other countries, are on call for weeks at a time, and are under the gun of a deadline practically every day. The few people I’ve known in my position who have been promoted kicked them self after learning what that lifestyle is like. Burnout and turnover is high. They may, in the end, have a higher salary ceiling, but as they often say about their workload: “The sky’s the limit when they don’t have to pay us more to do it.”

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RC

It really depends on the career field and the amount of salaried positions available at your company. I’ve been in two different hourly positions where I excelled at my job and although there were no higher positions to be promoted to (unless someone left and no one was leaving) so I was given a few more responsibilities and a merit raise because of my job performance. It’s not true that if you are hourly you are locked down – I’ve had 2 different experiences with adjusting responsibilities and hourly rate up without being moved into a salaried position.

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LifeAndMyFinances

I say it all depends on what’s expected out of you as a salaried employee. Currently, I’m salaried, but there is no expectation for me to work more than 40 hours per week. In fact, my time is more relaxed because I don’t have to make up time if I miss an hour of work for a doctor’s appointment.

For many though, a salaried position means long hours and little appreciation. If this is the case for your company, I would advise sticking out the hourly position as long as possible (unless of course, there is a possibility of advancing further in the company).

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Squirrelers

I think this response states it well. If a position means long hours and little appreciation, salaried may not be the way to go. Sometimes, the same work can be done with higher ROI if done independently as a consultant/contractor.

Again, it depends on the profession, your career goals, and each specific situation. But I think it’s important to always keep in mind one’s overall quality of life and true hourly pay – even if salaried.

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Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter

I have been in both situations and from what I have experienced, I prefer salary. However, like LAMF said, salary only works if you only expected to work your 40 hours. I have been in spots where overtime was a must but at that point I decided to make a change. I like the fact of not having to punch in for every hour of work that I do- the flexibility is great .

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Jennifer

Everyone seems to have positive salary experiences, but I’m a little frustrated with mine. I have decent insurance, but if I take off a couple hours early to pick someone up from the airport, I’m expected to use vacation time. Considering the fact that I only get 10 days’ worth vacation time per year, I’d rather not use it for little things like that. I also am expected to work 48 hours a week, every single week, with at least 40 of them being client-billable. If I have 39 client-billable hours, I didn’t meet my requirement for the week, and it’s a bad mark in my associate profile. That hurts chances for raises and promotions.

Basically, my company pays us salary so they don’t have to pay us overtime, but they don’t allow us any of the perks that go along with being salaried. Make sure you discuss how the company treats the salaried job with current employees. I wish I had taken a different position; then I wouldn’t be working a minimum of 9.6 hours/day.

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Donna Clements

I requested to go salary instead of hourly (stupidly I must admit) thinking I would be able to use my few hours as comp time for doctors appt etc. Well .. the attorneys who are salaried have the perks of coming and going as they please but I was told I (as a professional also) would not be able to use my time as comp time. what I was told was there is actually no difference for me except I was now working extra hours without pay. can you guess what I have done? I quit putting in so much time on weekends and evenings (actually putting in ZERO time)
Why would I do this? I thought since I was the only nurse in the office and was also duel degreed I would be considered a professional and have those same perks. NOPE.. I can not even come in late. I must sign in and work my designated hours. I can not use my few hours from the weekend as comp time and use it for appts etc. NO BENEFIT to me at all. I would advise anyone going into a salaried position to ask lots of questions as to what this means…

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NealR

I am a salaried employee at a Cardiology center. My hrs are not long 7A to finish usually 1:30ish workload dependent. I work independent of Dr hrs, however pts are only scheduled in AM. I was told I would need to fill an 8 hr day with other non related tasks not in my job description. I’m also being docked pay for hrs in which the office is closed. Can they do that? I have no problem doing more work related duties ie more patients.

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slcccom

No, they can’t dock your pay. They are trying to have it both ways with you. Check Department of Labor regulations.

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